Polar icebreaker links
November 30th, 2009 | Foreign navies Maritime operations merchant ships Pirates Royal Navy Science and technology Ships Submarines | Posted by Phil Ewing
The icebreaker Polar Sea cleared a channel through the Arctic ice so vessels could pass through, much as today's links break through the online clutter to bring you the latest // Coast Guard
Ice-crushin’, channel clearin’, back-and-forth rockin’, long voyage takin’, high visibility links, breaking a path to you for the latest stories and updates on the Web:
- Pirate attack: Somali hijackers have seized a Greek oil tanker, the Maran Centaurus, bound for New Orleans with a full cargo. Last word was that a Greek frigate is shadowing the vessel.
- Fleet in decline: The Russian navy is looking at a dramatic drop in the number of ships it can field by 2015, when it will have to mothball many of its ex-Soviet warships, a retired Russian admiral says.
- Fleet in ascent:The Russians have to replace all those old ships with something, right? As Scoop Deck told you in August, the Russians want to buy a version of the French Navy’s Mistral-class amphibious assault ships, so the Mistral itself is visiting St. Petersburg this week so the Russian brass can take a look.
- PSPs for sailors: No, not for American sailors, unfortunately. Students at the Royal Navy’s HMS Collingwood college in Hampshire, England, will be getting Playstation Portables for help with their “studies.”
- LCS trinkets: Would you like a crystal paperweight inlaid with an image of the second littoral combat ship, Independence? Well you can buy ‘em now, to help support the ship’s commissioning in Mobile, Ala., Jan. 16
- Online connections: Sailors from a Chicago suburb use social networking to stay connected, even though they’re thousands of miles apart.
- Innovator remembered: The WaPo memorialized an engineer who played a central role in the development of submarine-launched missiles.